Hugues Capet

Duke of France, 960-987.
King of France, 987-996.

In 960, four years after the death of his father Hugues le
Grand in 956, Hugues was named as duke of the Franks ["Otho
et Hugo filii Hugonis, mediante avunculo ipsorum Brunone, ad
regem veniunt ac sui efficiuntur. Quorum Hugonem rex ducem
constituit, addito illi pago Pictavensi ad terram quam pater
ipsius tenuerat, concessa Othoni Burgundia." Flodoard, Annales,
s.a. 960, 149; Bruno was archbishop of Köln (Cologne), and
brother of Hedwig, the mother of Hugues]. On 1 June 987, after
the death of king Louis V, the claims of Charles of Lorraine
(brother of Louis) were set aside, and Hugues was chosen king
["Hac sententia promulgata et ab omnibus laudata, dux
omnium consensu in regnum promovetur, et per metropolitanum
aliosque episcopos Noviomi coronatus, Gallis, Brittannis, Dahis,
Aquitanis, Gothis, Hispanis, Wasconibus, rex Kalendis Iun.
praerogatur." Richer, Historia, iv, 12]. At
the same time, his son Robert was made co-king [ibid.]. When
Hugues died in 996, his son succeeded as king Robert II.

The cognomen of "Capet" which is generally given to
Hugues is not contemporary. In fact, when the name first appears
it is not as a cognomen of king Hugues of France, but of his
father duke Hugues, now generally called "le Grand"
("the Great"). The earliest example is in one
manuscript of the work of Adémar de Chabannes, from the eleventh
century ["... Ugo, filius Rotberti, cognomine Capetius,
... et ipsi Ugoni Capetio ducatum permisit ..." Adémar
Chab. (ms. "C"), iii, 22 (p. 142 n.); "... Ugo
dux, filius Ugonis Copetii, in regem elevatus est."
ibid., iii, 30 (p. 151 n.)]. The earliest unambiguous references
to king Hugues of France as Hugues Capet are from the twelfth
century, for example in Robert de Torigny's additions to the work
of Guillaume de Jumièges ["Supradictus vero Hugo Magnus
genuit ex filia Ottonis regis Saxonum, postmodum uero imperatoris
Romanorum, Hugonem Capeiet et fratres eius." GND (Rob.
Tor.), viii, 26 (vol. 2, pp. 244-5); also "... Hugonis
duci Magni filius Hugo [Capet] ..." GND, iv, 19 (vol.
1, pp. 132-3), where "Capet" is an addition in
Robert's revision]. For a detailed discussion of the appearance
of the name Capet, see the work of Ferdinand Lot [Lot (1903),
304-323 (Appendice VI: "Le surnom de «Capet»")].

Date of birth:say
940.His parents were
married in 937 [see the page of Hugues le Grand], and Hugues Capet, as the eldest son,
was probably born not long afterward.Place of birth: Unknown.

Date of death: 23×25 (probably 24) October 996.[Lot (1903), 298-303 (Appendice V:
Date de la mort du roi Hugues Capet)]Place of death: Les Juifs (Judeis),
buried at Saint-Denis.["Hugo rex papulis toto
corpore confectus, in oppido Hugonis Judeis extinctus est."
Richer, Historia, final notes (2: 308)] Hugues de Fleury
placed the death of Hugues at Melun ["Porro rex
Francorum Hugo anno regni sui undecimo Miliduni defungitur, et in
ecclesia sancti Dionisii tumulatur, relinquens sibi successorem
filium suum Rotbertum." Hugues de Fleury, Modernorum
regum Francorum actus, c. 8, MGH SS 9: 385]. Kalckstein
placed the death of Hugues at Paris [Kalckstein (1877), 458], but
Lot noted that Richer generally uses the word oppidum
for a smaller place [Lot (1903), 184, n. 2]. The traditional
interpretation of the word "Judeis" was that
Richer was blaming the death of Hugues on the Jews, perhaps via
bad treatment by Jewish medicine [e.g., Lot (1903), 185 & n.
2]. However, it was pointed out by Blumenkranz that there existed
at the time of Hugues a village called Judeis (Les
Juifs), near Chartres, now gone, and that this was the likely
location of the oppidum Hugonis where Hugues died
[Blumenkranz (1957); see also Gasnault (1960), Van Kerrebrouck
(2000), 48 (the latter not seen by me, citation courtesy of Roger
LeBlanc)].

Mother:Hadwig, daughter of Heinrich I,
king of Germany.
See the page of Hugues
le Grand for his marriages. Of the
three marriages, the fact that Hedwig was the mother of Hugues is
proven by the mention of archbishop Bruno as an avunculus
of Hugues Capet and his brother Otto (see above), and by the
reference of Hugues as a consobrinus of king Lothair of
France ["Rex Lotharius, locutus cum Hugone, consobrino
suo, ..." Flodoard, Annales, s.a. 962, 151],
among other evidence. Hugues appears explicitly as a son of
Hedwig in an eleventh century genealogical table of the
descendants of Heinrich I of Germany [MGH SS 6: 32].

Since Rodulfus Glaber is the only one of these
sources to be contemporary, it is natural to give his evidence
more weight. Other evidence points in the same direction. The
charters cited above show that Renuad of Nevers did have a wife
named Avoise (Hedwig), who was the mother of his son Guillaume.
That it was Avoise (and not some other wife of Renaud) who was a
member of the French royal family is proven by the Gesta
pontificum Autissiodorensium, which states that count
Guillaume of Nevers was a nepos of king Henri I, son of
Robert II ["... Guilelmo, nepote regis Henrici Philippi
patris, consule Nivernensium, ..." Gesta pontificum
Autissiodorensium, c. 52, Bib. Hist. Yonne, 1: 398].
Although the word nepos could mean both nephew and
cousin, the former meaning was much more common, and this would
thus tend to support the testimony of Rodulfus Glaber (because
Guillaume would be a nephew of Henri if Avoise were a daughter of
Robert, and he would be a cousin of Henri if Avoise were a sister
of Robert). Jessee also mentions a charter of Marmoutier which
would call Guillaume's brother Robert a nepos of king
Henri I [Jessee, 10-1, exact citation not given]. Confirming that
Renaud's wife was named Avoise strengthens the case for making
her a daughter of Robert, for Robert had a sister of that name
who is otherwise accounted for (as the wife of Regnier of
Hainaut, see above), and Hugues Capet is unlikely to have had two
daughters named Avoise.

The most serious objection to making Avoise a daughter of
Robert has been chronological. The chronicle of Vézelay states
that the marriage occurred in 1002, which would be
chronologically impossible for a daughter of Robert, for Robert
did not have any children until 1005 or so [Bouchard (1988),
17-8, n. 29], but would be possible for a sister of Robert.
Bouchard also stated "I tend, however, to trust the
chroniclers of Vézelay, who had a long and intimate contact with
the counts of Nevers, more than Raoul Glaber, who is often quite
unreliable on genealogy (for example, he calls Queen Constance
the daughter of the count of Toulouse, rather than of the count
of Provence)." [Bouchard (1988), 18, n. 29; see also
Bouchard (1987), 343-4; Bouchard later reversed her opinion after
seeing Jessee's 1990 work: Bouchard (2001), 26, 48] However, the
chronicle of Vézelay also contains the derivative passage which
makes Robert the father of bishop Hugues of Auxerre and of
Adélaïde, wife of Renaud of Nevers [RHF 10: 324, see above], so
the source not only contradicts itself with regard to Renaud's
wife, but it contains the error about the parentage of Hugues of
Auxerre, derived from another source. The supposed date of 1002
for the marriage comes from the same late source, and there is no
good reason to believe that it can be trusted. It is quite
possible that the siege of Auxerre and the marriage of Renaud
were a number of years apart and that they were connected only
later in the process of compiling the chronicle. It is true that
Rodulfus Glaber erred on the parentage of queen Constance, a
woman whose mother married four times and had children by three
of her husbands (causing confusion among more authors than just
Rodulfus Glaber), but she did not live in Burgundy where the
activities of Rodulfus Glaber were centered. Thus, there seems to
be no good reason to reject the contemporary evidence of Rodulfus
Glaber about the wife of Renaud, count of Nevers in Burgundy,
especially when the alternative would force us to accept two
daughters of Hugues Capet named Avoise, and would assume the less
common usage of the word nepos by Gesta pontificum
Autissiodorensium.

Supposed illegitimate
child (doubtful):

Gauzlin, d. 1029, archbishop of
Bourges, 1014-1029.This relationship has been frequently
stated [e.g., Anselme, 1: 70]. However, the underlying basis for
this statement is unclear. Léopold Delisle, in his introduction
to the life of Gauzlin, states the relationship with a citation
to Adémar de Chabannes, but the relevant passage of Adémar's
work states only that Gauzlin was the illegitimate son of a most
noble prince of the Franks ["Erat enim ipse nobilissimi
Francorum principis filius manzer, a puero in monasterio Sancti
Benedicti nutritus." Adémar Chab., iii, 39 (p. 161
& n. 4, where the editor states he was a son of Hugues
Capet)]. The Vita Gauzlini itself states only that he
was "ex liberiori totius Galliæ stirpe"
["Hic ex liberiori totius Galliæ stirpe fertur ingenuam
genituram excepisse." Vita Gauzlini, c. 1
(Delisle's edition, p. 276)]. Robert II exchanged letters with
Gauzlin in about 1022 without any mention of such a relationship
[RHF 10: 495 (#10), 496 (#11)]. In the absence of better
evidence, there is good reason to doubt the relationship.

Minor revision uploaded 2 August 2008, adding the place of
death of Hugues Capet. The original version listed the place of
death as "Unknown". Thanks are due to Roger LeBlanc.
who noted this oversight and provided the information from Van
Kerrebrouck (2000), along with its citation of the Blumenkranz
and Gasnault articles, and to Peter Stewart for providing me with
copies of those two articles.